HP Envy x2 Review

The trickle of hybrid notebooks is soon turning into a steady flow here in India. We already got a little taste of this new segment from the Dell XPS 12, and today it’s the turn of the HP Envy x2. HP has gone with an Asus Transformer design approach with the x2, where the entire screen is detachable from the keyboard dock. The main advantage of this design is that the notebook is more comfortable to use in tablet mode and lighter as well. The trade-off here is that you won’t be able to quickly transform it into notebook mode if you move around, unless you’re carrying the keyboard with you. This also happens to be one of the more affordable hybrid notebooks in the market, so let’s see how HP has managed to pull it off.

Video Review

A video review

Beautiful finish

The hinge bulges out from the back, so when opened, it props the keyboard at an angle, making it easier to type on. The ports on the side include two USB 2.0, SD card reader, HDMI, headphone jack and a charging port. The keys are decently sized with good amount of spacing between them. They aren’t backlit, however, which is a bit of a downer. The trackpad is generously big and works well. The same cannot be said about the buttons though. They are quite hard to press and don’t respond well every time. The battery is non-removable as the bottom is completely sealed off. 

Switching to tablet mode

Features
The Envy x2 runs on Windows 8 and packs in an 11.6-inch IPS display with a 1366 x 768 resolution. The resolution is a little low as compared to higher-end hybrids and the difference is immediately apparent. If it were a standard notebook, it wouldn’t be too bad, but since you’ll also be using it as a tablet, the closer you hold it, the more the pixels become visible. We also noticed a very faint backlight flicker, which was quite distracting. The sensitivity of the screen is good, but we’ve seen better. In tablet mode alone, the Envy x2 is slim and light, just like any other tablet. However, the keyboard dock increases overall weight, making it feel heavy.

Sleek and slender design

At the heart of the Envy x2 beats an Atom Z2760 Clover Trail SoC. In the way Medfield was created for smartphones, Clover Trail was designed for tablets and hybrid PCs. This is currently the only SoC available from Intel and is designed using Sandy Bridge’s fabrication process. Some of the highlights of the SoC involve Intel Burst Technology for dynamic scaling of CPU cores, Hyper Threading, support for up to 8MP camera, support for GPS, sensors and hardware level security. The SoC consists of two x86 cores running at 1.8GHz and a PowerVR SGX545 GPU for graphics.

The Z2760 does come with some major limitations. There’s only support for up to 2GB of DDR2 memory, no USB 3.0 support and the I/O controller only supports eMMC type flash memory rather than a SATA or mSATA interface. Despite these limitations, many OEMs have still chosen this SoC due to its ultra-low TDP of just 1.7W. This is the only way a Windows 8 hybrid/tablet can hope to achieve the battery life of ARM-based tablets.